Fear the Walking Dead – Season 4, Episode 15: “I Lose People…”

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “MM 54” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “… I Lose Myself” – click hereOn the rooftop of the hospital, June (Jenna Elfman) and the others are waiting for Morgan (Lennie James) to try figuring out what to do next. Jim (Aaron Stanford) is awaiting his transformation into “a skin muncher.” Nobody knows where Al (Maggie Grace) is, either. And Morgan can’t seem to determine a plan, nor does he want to be the leader. As long as they can pull together, they’ll survive.
Across the lake, John (Garret Dillahunt) and Strand (Colman Domingo) get a glimpse of Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Charlie (Alexa Nisenson). After so long, Victor’s feeling optimistic. This is also when Alicia’s able to get June on the walkie, giving everybody a bit more hope than existed moments before. Strand particularly has come around, now the one to keep John’s spirits up. In the meantime, Alicia and Charlie head to look for something they can use to get their friends off the drowning island.
Elsewhere, Martha (Tonya Pinkins) nurses her bloody wounds, and she’s got herself a map, looking over locations. She’s one tough lady. And she has herself a plan, too.With encouragement, Morgan decides on looking for Al inside the building. Everybody else, aside from Jim, is game. Before going, Sarah (Mo Collins) asks the dying man to hand over his “beer recipe.” She likens his presence to a “philosophical fart” and calms him down to the dirt for being a prick. But she likewise compliments his beer, knowing it’s one of those things worth carrying on in the post-apocalypse landscape. Still, he refuses.
Inside the hospital, Morgan and the crew go looking for Al. They find a lot of dead walkers and corridors closed off by fallen cement and other debris. At the generator there’s no sign of their lost friend. She left a message to let them know she was able to slip out towards the freight elevator. With few options left, Morgan offers to distract the hordes outside so his group can get out.
On their travels, Alicia and Charlie are attacked by Martha firing shots. They dodge bullets until the woman collapses from blood loss. The young girl realises this is the woman from over the walkie. Out of nowhere a little while later, John and Victor see the SWAT truck come barrelling across the water towards them with Alicia driving. Charlie even returns John’s cowboy hat. A brief respite from horror/terror. Not only that, the walkie’s clear with Martha unconscious, allowing John to call out to Morgan— he gets to talk to June instead, putting a smile on both their faces.
All the relative happiness is worrying me. Can’t be good, right?
On top of the hospital, Morgan swings a walker off and hits a vehicle, setting off its alarm. The horde at the front moves, giving the group time to get out and to a vehicle. However, Morgan feels guilty for leading everyone into the hospital, as well as a ton of other things he’s been holding onto forever. He urges the others to leave without him, as he remains on the rooftop with a dying Jim.

“Death is a certainty. Getting out from under the shit you’ve done isn’t.”

On the rooftop together, Morgan and Jim sit patiently. The brewer asks to be put out of his misery when “the time comes.” That’s when Morgan hears June on the walkie calling for him, the sounds of the SWAT truck down below. The whole gang’s back together again! Nobody’s leaving without their pal, and especially not with their renewed sense of optimism. “Seems like anything‘s possible,” Mr. Dorie tells Morgan. Nobody’s being left behind anymore— they’ve got themselves a fire truck with working hydraulics.
Problem is, the ladder only reaches so high, and it’s a couple storeys shy. Morgan has to climb down a bit, also forcing him to leave Jim there alone. He gets down a ways before being attacked by a walker, nearly bitten and pushed over the edge of the building. Lucky for him John’s got an eagle eye shot with that revolver. Once Morgan makes it close enough he has to make a jump for the ladder’s basket, which he does like A GODDAMN BAD MOTHERFUCKER! And so it’s back to his friends, who’ve got to get a move on before they’re overrun by walkers. They’ve got no gas, leaving them stuck on the fire engine.
Then Jim tells them: “I got this.” He’s left his death for a meaningful sacrifice. Over the walkie, he tells Sarah his recipe— only she hears the very last secret ingredient, too. When he’s done he takes a swan dive off the hospital’s roof, and this draws the dead away from his crew, allowing them the diversion needed to get to the SWAT truck. When they do get there they see Martha’s taken off despite her injury.Where will the group go from here? There’s hope, but there’s a lingering danger the longer Martha stays out there. Morgan wants to head for Virginia after they locate Al. Something tells me things won’t go as planned, at least not exactly. Martha’s lurking, marking on more of her zombies— this time, out of Jim. Gonna get nasty.“… I Lose Myself” is next time, the big Season 4 finale.

An Update from Father Gore

Seek & Ye Shall Find

Father Gore is first and foremost a passionate lover of film— especially horror. He's also a Master's student at Memorial University of Newfoundland with a concentration in postmodern critical theory, currently writing a thesis which will be his debut novel of literary fiction, titled Silence. He also used to write for Film Inquiry frequently during 2016-17 and is currently contributing to Scriptophobic in a column called Serial Killer Celluloid focusing on film adaptations about real life murderers. As of September 2018, Father Gore is an official member of the Online Film Critics Society.